Perspectives on the beautiful game of soccer; fueled by enormous amounts of coffee

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Who's got next?

Justin Rodriguez profiles Charles Renken. I actually think Charles will have an easier time of it because Freddy Adu came before him. People will be more careful about the hype they put on Charles. Freddy has lived up to many expectations with a pretty solid pro and international career, actually, but the build-up around him was such that some people still think he's disappointed.

Though older than Charles, Sebastian Lletget was still a technical prodigy, and he and Charles intuitively recognized each other's skill and worked particularly well together. Sebastian was eligible for Italian citizenship (though that's notoriously difficult to get) and later completed a transfer to West Ham's youth system for a short stint.

But now he's not apparently there any more. He's not back in the U.S. youth system either. He's apparently in San Francisco (he participated in the adidas ESP camp in July of this year).

As I understand it, the whole point of residency was to prepare the U17 team to play well as a team, since the youth teams at that level are so scattered. I'm not sure if Lletget declined a chance at residency (hoping to go abroad again) or that the program felt burned by his previous move and didn't want him. Or maybe he's gone through an awkward growth spurt (common at this age) and isn't playing well right now. Though he made the adidas ESP All-Star team, he wasn't considered among the very top players by an ESPN scouting report.

Renken looks very, very good. Not only is he technical but he has vision and the touch for the right pass.It'll be interesting how his career develops.As well as the other kid you mentioned who seems to have fallen off a bit.